Gandhinagar, May 17 (PTI) Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said on Sunday that the massive growth of the dairy sector has brought about a profound transformation in the lives of women, and 'White Revolution 2.0' will further boost the income of dairy farmers.
Shah was here to inaugurate the state-of-the-art milk processing and packaging plant of Madhur Dairy, located in Dashela village of Gandhinagar district. The dairy is affiliated with the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) under the Amul brand.
Addressing a gathering on the occasion, Shah said that women are the biggest beneficiaries of the massive growth of the dairy sector.
“From a humble beginning of just four societies and 6,000 litres of milk, generating a turnover of merely Rs 7,000, we have today achieved a staggering turnover of Rs 7 lakh crore. This remarkable progress stands as the greatest success of our cooperative system.
“While this initiative has certainly boosted the income of livestock farmers, its most significant achievement has been the empowerment of women,” he said.
The dairy sector has brought about profound transformation in the lives of women, Shah said, adding that under the framework of ‘White Revolution 2.0’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has formulated a strategic plan to triple the country’s milk production within the next ten years.
“I would assert that Amul, along with the entire dairy industry in Gujarat, has played a pivotal role in boosting the profits of our livestock farmers by successfully integrating global technologies into India, and has established a strong mechanism to ensure that these profits are directly credited to the bank accounts of the women,” he said.
Shah said Amul and its associated dairies have made immense strides in the production of various value-added products, and the entire benefit of these endeavours flows directly to dairy farmers, which he called “constitutes our greatest achievement”.
“There are 36 lakh women involved in this sector in Gujarat, and through the production of 30 million litres of milk daily, Rs 200 crore is deposited into the accounts of these women every single day,” he said.
Shah said that PM Modi inaugurated Amul’s AI-powered digital assistant during the recent AI Summit. In the days to come, Amul’s AI platform is poised to play a transformative role within the agricultural sector.
This flagship digital assistant has been named ‘Sarlaben’ to ensure that the women involved in the sector can utilise it with ease and simplicity.
The dairy sector has set an ambitious target to achieve a growth of at least 20 per cent by effectively leveraging the principles of the circular economy. The day this happens, the income of milk producers will increase by 20 per cent, he said.
Built at an approximate cost of Rs 128 crore, the fully automatic Madhur dairy plant has an initial milk processing capacity of 2.5 lakh litres per day, which can be expanded up to 5 lakh litres per day as required, said officials.